Whoops! 9 Times Harry Reid Said ‘The Wrong Thing’

2 years ago

Senate Majority Leader and totally lovable Harry Reid has apologized for making a few offensive (and lame) asian jokes at an Asian Chamber of Commerce event Thursday.

“My comments were in extremely poor taste and I apologize,” Sen. Reid said in a statement to TIME. “Sometimes I say the wrong thing.”

Here are just a few of those times Reid has said “the wrong thing.”

1. Reid referred to Barack Obama as “light-skinned” and without a “Negro dialect,” in 2008, and said those two factors would help Obama’s then presidential bid. His comments were reported in the book “Game Changer,” in 2010, and he eventually apologized for his remarks. “I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” Reid said.

2. In 2008, Reid explained his relief that the Capitol Visitor Center was completed, because he would no longer have to “smell the tourists” on hot days. “My staff has always said, ‘Don’t say this,’ but I’m going to say it again because it’s so descriptive, because it’s true,” he said at the dedication. “In the summertime, because (of) the high humidity and how hot it gets here, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.”

3. As the healthcare debate was raging in 2009, Reid told a Nevada newspaper Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s then recent death would help the Democrats’ cause. “I think [Kennedy] will be a help. He’s an inspiration for us. [Healthcare] was the issue of his life and he didn’t get it done.”